Class action

While Mr. O and I were touring our nation's capital on Saturday, the Globe and Mail was reporting on a class action suit filed by a B.C. man against the Immigration Department, which accuses the government of overcharging on immigration sponsorship fees by 50% (thanks to C&C for the tip!).

Alan Hinton and his lawyer Richard Kurland spent 13 years trying to access information that proved the cost of processing a $75 spousal sponsorship application was in fact only $36.69. So far the suit only covers cases filed between 1994 and 2004, but Kurland has asked for an extension to include all cases up to the end of 2007, which would mean us.

This is my favourite part of the article by far:

"...the Immigration Department, he said, could never ask for such an exemption "because politically it is suicide to tell immigrants that the government is profiting on their visas at a time that they are claiming that processing times are too long because they don't have resources for more visa offices."

Tee-hee.